Vegetation- and climate history during the Neogene, Mc Murdo Sound area (Antarctica)

Applicant

Privatdozentin Dr. Barbara Mohr 
Museum für Naturkunde
Leibniz-Institut für Evolutions- und Biodiversitätsforschung (MfN)

project description

Neogene sediments planned to be recovered by ANDRILL from the McMurdo Sound area (Antarctica) will be studied palynologically. The vegetation, most likely Nothofagus-Podocarp forests to tundra-like shrublands, changes dramatically during this time period because of several severe global cooling events. Southern high latitude environments react very sensitively to climate change; thus studies on palaeovegetation will result in a set of useful proxydata for reconstructing the Antarctic glacial history. Palaeoclimate studies over longer time scales are needed to understand the general mechanisms that are responsible for environmental variations. These mechanisms are also relevant to relatively short time periods, as seen today in what we circumscribe with the term „global change“.

DFG-Verfahren: Infrastruktur-Schwerpunktprogramme

term from 2007 to 2010